8 Gb of ram enough for gaming ?

[ZionXylenes]

As said before I am getting a pc with an intel core i5 6400 with a gtx 1060 3 gb. A friend of mine said 8 gb isn't enough ram whilst another says you really only need 4? So should I spend the extra $100 to get 16 gb of ram ddr4 since my pc can only take two slots and it currently has 2 sticks of 4 gb ram.

 

[CTurbo]

4GB is not enough, but 8GB is

 

[JackNaylorPE]

These days, we mostly recommend 2 x 8GB but if budget is tight ... you'll get buy with 2 x 4Gb.

However 2 x 8GB GB is no where near $100 more than 2 x 4GB ,,, more like $20

2 x 4GB = $42 / 2 x 8GB - $70

But since you already have the 2 x 4GB, it's not $100 but still $70 out of pocket.... until you sell the old stuff.

I'd go with 2 x 4Gb and if ya see the need, get 2 x 8Gb and sell the old ones for $30. Even 'lil older games like GTAV and Witcher 3 pick up 5 or 6 fps with 16 GB

4 GB was inadequate in 2010.

 

[D JAY Cva]

8 GB is good enough for current gaming , you can consider 16 GB is you going to render video files ... else go with 8 GB and save the $100 for future upgrades

 

[iamacow]

4GB for anything in the last 3 years isn't enough. Windows 8 and beyond use 4GB for the OS alone. You need 8GB minimum for today's games.

16GB would be ideal so you could run other apps in the background while playing.

 

[chucknorris13]

This article should help you out.
http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

 

[JackNaylorPE]

You can get any answers ya want by picking what games to use....

also what or how many GFX cards you use ... SLI / CF will use more RAM

also whether you look at avg fps or min fps ... impact is significant on min fps .. 69 vs 66 avg fps may not matter... but 53 vs 31 min fps will be more noticeable. However, 1st time I have seen this .... min. fps was not affected that much as avg fps in these two games. In fact in GTAV it was 1 frame faster in min fps but have to chalk that off to measurement variability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDkKDqThyBo

 

[iamacow]

Since when does SLI / CF use more ram? not sure where you got that information from, but it is wrong.

 

[ZionXylenes]

Can i mix two different brands of ram as long as they are ddr4 so i can just buy a 8 gb stick and use the old one and have 12 gb of ram or should i just go for the new 16 gb of ram.

 

[sizzling]

I've recently encountered stuttering with 8gb RAM in Infinity Warfare. I have read reports of BF1 having the same problem. The most recent games are starting to need more than 8gb to play properly and are recommending 16gb.

 

[sizzling]

You can mix RAM but its not recommended. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Even buying the exact same make and model is not guaranteed to work, its why the sell RAM in match packs. However I've never had a problem using the same make and model but I've read reports of people who have.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Since when does SLI / CF use more ram? not sure where you got that information from, but it is wrong.

I'm not talking where putting two 4GB cards in SLI does not increase available VRAM to 8GB. I have personally tested SLI performance with 8 GB and 16GB and observed a difference, subjectively

Published test results which were more common back when SLI / CF first came out ... faster RAM speed and lower CAS settings has the same effect. .. another fact oft denied. I didn't save the *more* results as this is the 1st time anyone ever challenged it. I did save the links and results from back then as to speed and timings

http://wccftech.com/fallout-4-performance-heavily-influenced-by-ram-speed-according-to-report/

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2792/12

22.3 % (SLI) increase in minimum frame rates w/ C6 instead of C8 in Far Cry 2
18% (single card) / 5% (SLI) increase in minimum frame rates w/ C6 instead of C8 in Dawn of War
15% (single card) / 5% (SLI) increase in minimum frame rates w/ C6 instead of C8 in World in Conflict

Also see http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/1

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/10
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6372/memory-performance-16gb-ddr31333-to-ddr32400-on-ivy-bridge-igp-with-gskill/14

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?166512-Arma-3-CPU-vs-RAM-performance-comparison-1600-2133-up-to-15-FPS-gain

As for amount ... I don't think anyone argues that insufficient RAM can impact GFX card performance... it just seems really hard to argue against the concept that having twice as much GFX activity has no effect.

 

[Tradesman1]

If you have two cards in SLI and each is running 4GB, then in SLI they together are running 4GB - DRAM use and GPU use doesn't really change. That's been simple fact since the inception of SLI.The big things are the requirements of the game itself, and you have more DRAM then an individuals GPU vDRAM - i.e. it's hard to fully feed an 8GB GPU with only 8GB of system DRAM as a good part of system DRAM is tasked elsewhere, the OS and other open processes and apps

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I can remember instances where 2x 2Gb just wasn't working for some.... and moving to 2 x 4Gb solved the problem. Was so long ago that I wouldn't even attempt to find the references and links. It's not something I have seen come up in many a year.

 

[Tradesman1]

As mentioned above, 2x2GB is 4 GB total - that's not enough to fully feed a 4GB GPU, as mentioned above

" i.e. it's hard to fully feed an 8GB GPU with only 8GB of system DRAM as a good part of system DRAM is tasked elsewhere, the OS and other open processes and apps"

Need to depend more on actual ly doing things rather than depending on articles off the net, all to often you 'read' things that simply aren't true

 

[iamacow]

Still CF / SLI doesn't use more ram, you are describing putting more system memory in and getting higher fps, therefore allows some games to run better. SLI / CF does not factor into that and having 2 cards does not use more system ram.

 

[Tradesman1]

Sli/CF don't 'use' more system DRAM, no, but you have to have an equal amount or more to fully feed the VDRAM of the card, if you have an 8GB card an an app that will use all 8GB then you have to be able to feed it - 8GB of system DRAM is down to 6 or so after factoring in the OS and apps use, so trying to feed an 8GB card with 6 doesn't really cut it - hypothetical of course as you'll seldom see a GPU use a full 8 GB of VDRAM

 

[DealWithRAM]

It kind of depends on what game it is:
For an example, Project64 will need more RAM than 1GB + 256MB RAM. It really depends on the actual size of the RAM, so like I would recommend 3GB, for old games. Maybe a little bit more for modern gaming, like 8GB. Something near that. Go and check you graphics settings and see if you can set it up to lower resolution, let's take Chess Titans for example, lowest graphics works better for lower RAM sticks of memory, if you get my idea. Some RAM sticks might mess up your motherboard permanently. The RAM may overheat and cause the motherboard to heat at an uncoolable temp. So be careful if you reach max limit or get incompatible with the RAM.